Fate of Skye site up in air

Navid Saberi of United Gulf Developments says council’s rejection of the Skye Halifax project isn’t the end of the line. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)

First came the Twisted Sisters and then Skye Halifax. What’s next?

Days after regional council rejected Skye Halifax, a controversial $350-million proposal for twin 44-storey towers on a four-storey podium at the corner of Hollis and Sackville streets, there are scant details about the future of the former Tex-Park site.

United Gulf Developments Ltd., which bought the property at 1591 Granville St. from the municipality in 2004, maintains that it will come back with a third design.

“I don’t sell. I have lots of properties and I sell a finished product, that’s what I sell,” United Gulf president Navid Saberi said in an interview when asked if he would consider selling the property.

Whether the scale of a new proposal will be reduced, or possibly configured in a different way to conform to the HRM By Design planning strategy, Saberi isn’t saying.

“I have to sit down with my architect and look at the options that we have and figure out which one will be the best one,” he said.

At a maximum height of 172 metres, Skye Halifax would have greatly exceeded the 66-metre height limit for the site and violated a municipal stipulation that buildings are not to be seen from within the Citadel’s parade square.

United Gulf had requested five site-specific exceptions for Skye Halifax based on a loophole in HRM by Design, which council adopted in 2009. The planning strategy allows for exceptions if it can be demonstrated that a development would bring social, economic and cultural benefits.

But on Tuesday, regional council voted 9-6 in favour of killing the proposal, with Mayor Mike Savage stating that any benefits the buildings would provide would be overshadowed by uncertainty among developers looking to build in downtown Halifax if the HRM by Design variations were granted.

“(HRM by Design) is a good document … but there are instances and there are times that exceptions need to be made,” Saberi said Friday, adding that while many construction cranes are working downtown, “there are no residential projects that are happening downtown.”

Before HRM by Design was implemented, Saberi had proposed the Twisted Sisters — twin 27-storey residential towers — for the site.

Council approved the project but Saberi allowed the development agreement to expire in 2010 because he said the proposal was no longer economically viable.

Though much taller, Skye Halifax would have had a smaller footprint than the Twisted Sisters, with smaller, more affordable units and no wasted space.

“The contribution that this project was making to downtown was the key factor with our proposal and the market that it was serving,” Saberi said.

A buyback agreement with Halifax Regional Municipality for the site, dated March 17, 2005, stipulates that the developer must begin work no later than 24 months after a development agreement has been approved, and the project must be completed within 60 months of approval.

If those conditions are not met, the municipality “at its sole discretion” may buy back the property for 95 per cent of the original purchase price, which was $5.36million.

Whether that agreement is still enforceable, given that the original development agreement has expired, is unclear, said municipal spokeswoman Shaune MacKinlay.